Grandparents Win Charge Dismissal

January 15, 1985|By Mary Anderson, Staff Writer

A judge dismissed false imprisonment charges Monday against George and Arlene Marny, a Fort Lauderdale couple who went to jail in September rather than relinquish their 4-year-old grandson to their daughter`s custody.

Defense attorney Terrence O`Connor contended the Marnys could not be prosecuted for keeping the boy away from his mother, Patricia Marny Beaupre, 29, because the child`s father swore that his in-laws had acted with his permission.

``The welfare of my child demanded that he not be released to his mother,`` said William Beaupre of Riviera Beach in an affidavit.

The father has had little or no contact with the boy since his separation from the mother in 1980, police reports said. He supports the Marnys` bid for custody, his affidavit said.

The grandparents told their daughter when she arrived home from work Sept. 5 that she could no longer see her son, George Curtis Beaupre, nicknamed ``Beau.``

Arlene Marny, 67, was arrested Sept. 7 after her daughter asked Fort Lauderdale police to investigate. The boy was not at the Marnys` home in the 2000 block of Northwest 10th Avenue when officers searched.

And Mrs. Marny would not say where the child was unless her daughter surrendered him to the state pending a court decision on custody.

George Marny, 69, was arrested several days later, when he returned to the home without the boy.